happy cake

Dorie Greenspan’s Cranberry Spice Bundt

Celebration Cakes are not my forte; I am a loaf cake kind of person. However, when this Dorie Greenspan recipe popped up for Christmas on NYT Cooking, I fell in love. I didn’t get around to making it for Christmas, or New Years, but thought it appropo for our Chinese New Year celebrations:pink is red enough to be auspicious, right?

We enjoyed this celebratory dessert centrepiece so much that Loving Husband bought me a proper bundt tin (I have been using a springform baking tin set with a bundt option).

This weekend, we will make the first bake in this beautiful new tin using the same recipe with a few changes – the pink icing stays!

While my thoughts are on cake, sharing with you a funny that Loving Husband sent me.

Hope you get some cake this weekend!

To make the Cake:

• 170 g unsalted butter (room temperature and cut into chunks)
• 320 g all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon (recipe calls for 1¼ tsp ground cardamom and ¾ tsp ground coriander)
• 1 tsp ground ginger (recipe calls for ½ tsp)
• 250 g granulated sugar (recipe calls for 300g)
• Finely grated zest of 1 Mandarin orange (recipe calls for 1 orange or 2 small tangerines)
• 80 ml neutral oil
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 235 grams plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature and drained of excess liquid
• 125g fresh cranberries *
• 125g fresh blueberries (*recipe calls for 200g fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Butter a large (12- to 13-cup) Bundt pan, dust the interior with flour and tap out the excess (or coat the pan with nonstick baker’s spray)
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda and then whisk in the spices; set aside.
4. Put the granulated sugar in a large bowl. Add the zest and, use your fingertips to rub it into the sugar until you catch a whiff of orange.
5. Drop in the butter. Cream the sugar and butter until pale, creamy and fluffy.
6. Pour in the oil and mix well.
7. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
8. Beat in the vanilla
9. Beat in the yogurt
10. Fold in the 2/3 of the dry ingredients until just mixed.
11. Fold in the fruit and any remaining 1/3 flour.
12. Pour the batter into the pan and push it gently into the pan’s curves, leveling the top as best as you can.
13. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a tester inserted comes out clean. The cake will be deeply golden brown and pull away from the sides of the pan when prodded.
14. Transfer the pan to a rack, let rest for 5 minutes and then unmold the cake onto the rack. Allow it to come to room temperature before icing.

To make the Icing:

• 275 g icing’ sugar
• 2 Tbsp plus 1 tsp (maybe a bit more) cranberry or pomegranate juice

1. Put the icing sugar in a medium bowl and sprinkle in the juice.
2. Stir the juice into the sugar. You’re aiming for an icing that flows easily off the side of a spoon. If needed, add more juice by droplets.
3. Either keep the cake on the rack and slip a piece of parchment or a sheet pan under the rack to catch drips, or transfer the cake to a platter. Spoon the icing over the cake, allowing it to run down the sides. Let the icing dry before serving.

This post is my contribution to

• What’s On Your Plate hosted by Deb at The Widow Badass & Donna at Retirement Reflections
• Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie the Explorer
• Whatsoever is Lovely hosted by XingFuMama